This article prospectively examined the patterns of change in couples' family and friend networks and supports across the transition to parenthood as well as stability in individual differences over ...time. Additionally, parental adjustment and depression were examined with respect to changes in couples' social systems. Participants included a total of 137 couples recruited prior to the birth of their first child from prenatal clinics in rural North Carolina. Couples were interviewed about their social networks and supports at four different time periods: prenatally and when target children were 3, 12, and 24 months of age. Couples also completed measures of depression and adjustment at each of the time periods. Across-time correlations computed for the social network, support, and parental functioning variables revealed that there was considerable stability in the rank ordering of husbands and wives from the prenatal period through 24 months postpartum documenting continuity in parental networks in the context of change. However, growth curve analyses revealed dynamic changes in mothers' and fathers' social systems during this transition and that many of these changes were related to parental adjustment and depression. The discussion highlights the contribution of these data to understanding continuities and discontinuities in mothers' and fathers' social networks over time.
Using data from a diverse sample of 581 families living in predominantly low-income, rural communities, the current study sought to investigate the longitudinal associations among father-perpetrated ...intimate partner violence (IPV) and child-directed physical aggression perpetrated by the mother. The unique contributions of each of these types of family violence on children’s behavioral problems at school entry were also examined. Results confirm bidirectional associations between father-perpetrated IPV and maternal physical aggression directed toward the child, and indicate that both types of physical aggression contribute to child behavior problems at school entry.
Couples were studied before and after the birth of their 1st child to understand processes by which marital conflict influences child development. Hypotheses were tested concerning direct and ...indirect processes relating marital conflict to the security of infant-mother and infant-father attachment and disorganized attachment behavior. Findings supported the prediction that chronic marital conflict interferes with sensitive, involved parenting and thereby predicts insecurity in attachment relationships, particularly for fathers. It was also argued that chronic marital conflict presents the infant with experiences of frightened or frightening parents and diminished behavioral options to alleviate accompanying distress. As predicted, disorganized attachment behavior with mother and father was explained by chronic marital conflict and not mediated by parental ego development or sensitive parenting.
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CEKLJ, FFLJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PEFLJ
Objective.
This study examined interactions between parenting beliefs and parenting behaviors in the prediction of early childhood externalizing and internalizing symptoms.
Design.
The authors ...observed sensitive and negative intrusive parenting behaviors during infancy and toddlerhood in conjunction with self-reported maternal beliefs about the importance of discipline/control and concerns regarding spoiling in a community sample of 185 African American and European American mother-child dyads. Multiple regression techniques modeled interactions between parenting self-reported parenting beliefs and observed parenting behaviors to predict mother-reported child internalizing symptoms and mother-reported child externalizing symptoms at 30 and 36 months. The analyses also explored the role of ethnicity as a moderator of these relations.
Results.
The combination of high and average spoiling beliefs and low levels of sensitive parenting was associated with elevated child internalizing symptoms. Negative parenting and beliefs reflecting concerns about spoiling were independent risk factors for elevated child externalizing symptoms.
Conclusion.
Parenting beliefs and behaviors should be considered jointly to identify risks for the development of early behavior problems.
The representativeness of fathers who participate in family research was examined among 661 families. Approximately two thirds of eligible fathers participated. Mothers' and observers' reports on ...families of participating and nonparticipating fathers were compared. Participating fathers underrepresented fathers with less education, later-born children, more ambivalent marriages, partners with more traditional child-rearing beliefs, families with less optimal parenting environments, and infants who were unplanned, had more difficult temperaments, and were less healthy. Also underrepresented were ethnic minority families and working-class fathers. However, no differences were found in regard to child gender, family income, mothers' psychosocial functioning, either parent's employment experiences, or child-care arrangements. Implications for the generalizability of findings and the recruitment of fathers are discussed.
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CEKLJ, FFLJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PEFLJ
Hierarchical linear modeling was used to describe longitudinal relations between maternal sensitivity and depressive symptomatology for mothers of children with differing attachment classifications ...at 36 months of child age using data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care. Attachment during toddlerhood was assessed using a modified Strange Situation Paradigm developed by the MacArthur Working Group on Attachment. On average, maternal sensitivity increased longitudinally from 6 to 36 months for groups with children classified as secure or resistant, but not for groups classified as avoidant or disorganized. Higher maternal depressive symptoms were associated with lower levels of sensitivity for all mothers, although this effect was significantly less severe for mothers of securely attached children. In addition, higher maternal depressive symptoms were associated with decreases in sensitivity from 6 to 36 months for mothers of children who at 36 months showed disorganized attachments combined with underlying patterns of avoidant or resistant behavior.
To examine the implications of paternal occupational conditions for the quality of father-infant interactions, home visits, including interviews and videotaped observations of father-infant ...interactions, were conducted with 446 fathers living in six low-income, nonmetropolitan counties in North Carolina and Pennsylvania. When a variety of individual and demographic characteristics were controlled for, a less supportive work environment was associated with lower levels of fathers' engaged and sensitive parenting. Significant interactions pointed to the importance of understanding combinations of risk factors. Experiencing high levels of workplace stressors, including low levels of self-direction and high levels of care work, in the presence of other individual or demographic risk factors was associated with lower levels of father parenting quality.
Understanding Families as Systems Cox, Martha J.; Paley, Blair
Current directions in psychological science : a journal of the American Psychological Society,
10/2003, Volume:
12, Issue:
5
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
In this article, we discuss recent research that has arisen from theoretical and conceptual models that use a systems metaphor for understanding families. We suggest that research stimulated by such ...models leads social scientists in new and important directions in understanding the social and emotional development of children in their families. These models view development as resulting from the dynamic transactions across multiple levels of family systems, which regulate a child's behavior. Thus, these models are important in considering multiple influences on development and adaptation.
Deficits in social orienting (i.e., gazing toward caregivers) during dyadic interactions and reactivity to stressful stimuli have been identified as behavioral correlates of oppositional defiant ...disorder (ODD) and callous-unemotional (CU) behaviors in older children. The goal of the current study was to investigate infants’ mother-directed gaze and reactivity during the face-to-face and still-face episodes of the face-to-face stillface paradigm performed at 6 months in the prediction of ODD and CU behaviors in early childhood. Using data from the Durham Child Health and Development study (
n
= 206), hierarchical regression analyses revealed that infants’ negative reactivity during the still-face episode and mother-directed gaze during the face-to-face episode predicted fewer ODD behaviors in early childhood. Examination of interaction effects suggested that mother-directed gaze attenuated the negative relation between reactivity and ODD and CU behaviors in early childhood. The current study is one of the first to extend downward the investigation of ODD and CU behaviors into infancy.
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